We recently returned from an American River Cruise a month ago - a week before leaving, the cruise line said we all had to be vaccinated in order to board - I hadn’t had the second shot yet and neither had my son, the rest of our group was fully vaccinated.
I expected to get a full refund at that time, we’d already been delayed a year - the cruise ship then said a negative PCR COVID test was required 48 hours before boarding (cost me $150) - and everyone was required to take a quick, 15- minute COVID test immediately before boarding.
I understand their concerns, the cruise ship industry has been hit hard, the crew on our ship kept mentioning how they were glad to get back to work after a year- and most of the passengers were elderly, including many disabled.
I appreciated that it was only 50% capacity and everything was kept spotlessly clean - I did not enjoy the strong smell of bleach on everything, though.
If you are fully vaccinated, that PCR covid test seems like unnecessary expense burden.
We are booked on a Caribbean cruise in middle of September but the MSC cruises gave us a full refund eligibility if we cancel 15 days before sailing. In the past it was more like 3 months to get even a partial refund.
“strong smell of bleach on everything, though.”
Wonder why they don’t use hydrogen peroxide? Maybe they WANT the odor?
The good news is you can finally cruise without getting norovirus.
The odd thing is that there is absolutely no evidence for someone getting Covid from a surface. The overwhelming majority of cases are due to people being in close proximity to an infected person. So all of the bleach and hydrogen peroxide used to clean places is in vain.